tour diary

11th of November 2018 was surely a day to remember. At that time each year, we celebrate National Independence Day in Poland and The Remembrance Day in the UK. This time however, for music fans, it was also the last day of the Blinders’ October/November tour supporting their debut album “Columbia”. Jokingly nicknamed “The Last Battle of Bristol” this date was hugely anticipated for several reasons. The Blinders haven’t played Bristol since their This Feeling days (February 2017 at The Stag & Hounds) and in the interviews, the band was adamant that the Johnny Dream and The Codeine Scene personas will be permanently gone. Expecting a bloody send off, fans quickly grabbed offered tickets. The gig was not a sold out event but not many tickets remained at the door and it is safe to say that Thekla was nicely packed. We arrived around 6:30 pm as the doors opened and we had to stand in a long queue to get inside. If you have to wait for the admission, it is a good sign that the concert will be a success.

The venue from the outside

It is a common knowledge that Thekla is one of the most unusual venues in the country. It is actually a real boat turned into music venue and when you see it for the first time, it can look really strange. Not Upside-Down strange, just strangely strange if you know what we mean. Yet, you quickly start appreciating the facilities they have: two bars (one long on the ground floor and one upstairs), upper deck with quiet seating section and a balcony, large toilets, bands quarters, rehearsal rooms, cloakroom and a large secured smoking area in the back. There is also an outside sitting area on the main deck that must be really pleasant in the summer, but it was too cold for us to go there although some locals were brave enough to sit there with cold drinks wearing nothing but shorts and a vest. To each their own as the song goes…

Johnny Dream poster exhibited at the lower bar

Better shot of the same poster – this is how A0 format looks like. Its huge!

The view of lower deck as seen from the upper bar

After leaving our bags and jackets in the cloakroom, we entered the main concert space with large scene and merch stands on the left. Previous reviews mentioned already that The Blinders selection was much smaller than on previous gigs but there is no reason to complain about it. The band sold out their vinyl records, CD’s and most of their tees and we were really happy to hear their tour manager repeating himself saying “Sorry, this is our last date, we are sold out!”. We wish all the bands we have seen this year could say the same. There were many signed posters and badges for fans to grab so nobody left the shop empty handed.

The Lower Bar

The door to the green room

Stage times

On the evening, The Blinders were supported by two bands: Gum Soul and The White Room who replaced Calva Louise for the second leg of the tour. We haven’t seen any of them playing live before, so we were looking forward to their performances, especially after reading very enthusiastic reviews. Gum Soul were the first ones to hit the stage, some 45 minutes after we arrived. Their music can be classified as college rock/grunge that is fused with typical British indie. This is a very good mix and the band played a proper, strong 30 minute set. We had a chance to quickly speak with them after their show and we learnt that they are based in Bath but they play regularly in Bristol and managed to develop a healthy fan following. It was visible as once they started playing, the first few rows were populated by their fans who knew lyrics to each of the five songs they played (“Empty Room”, “Sour”, “In & Out”, “Scratch Ignorance” and “The Knees”). We liked “Sour” the most – it is their leading single and a very good track to play live. Gum Soul have formed only in February this year, but they seem to already have a distinctive sound and they know which direction they want to go. We will be keeping an eye on them in 2019 as the band is promising new material. If you have a chance to see them play locally, please do.

The White Room are described as a psychedelic pop, a marriage of convenience between The Sparks and early David Bowie, with art rock and shoe gaze influences. They are a five piece from Brighton, known for their flamboyant sense of fashion (Simon Le Bon meets David Byrne) and stage theatrics. Their lead singer, Jake Smallwood is very charismatic and he knows how to be in the centre of attention. He grabs the microphone with both hands, walks to the edge of the scene and pushes himself as far into the audience as possible, sometimes singing mere centimetres from the gig goers’ faces. This literal, in-your-face approach, seems to be working like a charm – the girls are mesmerized, the blokes are stretching their hands to pat him on his back and shoulders. With his platinum blonde hair and jade green shirts, Jake looks more like an actor than a musician but oh boy he can sing. His voice is crystal clear and again balances somewhere between Bowie, Le Bon and Mark Hollis. Except for Smallwood, the rest of the band comprises of Jacob Newman on guitar, Tristan Sava on keyboard, Hen Sava on drums and Josie McNamarra on bass. They have just released their double EP “Eight” and we had the pleasure of hearing all the best tracks from it: “Tomorrow Always Knew”, “Circles”, “Stole the I.V.” and “The Blue”. The band has been around for nearly two years and they have a large and dedicated fan base. they will be on tour in the late winter/early spring of 2019, so please keep your eyes open as they might come to the (independent) venue close to you.

White Room in action

This band needs to be seen live to understand what an incredible act they are

Just like in Birmingham, once the support acts were gone and the lights dimmed, the atmosphere changed rapidly. With the headliner about to come on the stage, fans grouped tightly on the main floor and on the balcony. In certain moments, the pushing and showing in darkness got so bad that the security had to calm down some of the most eager of fans. We sadly won’t remember the gig too well as we had to leave after the third song due to medical emergency but it was good to see the band in fantastic shape again. The show started very similar to their London gig, with Gene Wilder’s “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” movie that quickly blended into Columbia style propaganda monologue by Patrick T. Davies. And once the monologue was finished, “Gotta Get Through” smashed our eardrums and sent the crowd into frantic pogo. “Brave New World” followed without break, only to slow down with “Where No Man Comes” and then turn into the poetic declamation of “Free The Slaves”. We have not seen the rest of the gig but we were told that Thomas Haywood, sat on the floor among the audience singing his mantra “There is no hope” during “Swine”, Charlie McGough battered his bass with intensity not seen previously and Matty Neale nearly broke his drum set with powerful blows. Was it a great send off to Johnny Dream and a proper good bye after 22-day tour? The answer is yes.

Even if it was our first time seeing The Blinders live, those three songs would be enough to turn us into believers. This band is going places, and this is not a secret. This is the truth. They have been predestined for the greatness and they will never settle for anything else.

After all, they’ve got the divine right.

The merch stand

Merch stand

Setlist:

Gotta Get Through
L’etat C’est Moi
Brave New World
Where No Man Comes
Free the Slave
I Can’t Breathe Blues
Swine
Hate Song
Rat In a Cage
Ramona Flowers
Et Tu
Brutus/Berlin Wall
Orbit (Salmon of Alaska)

We often try to photograph and film some part of performance to make sure our review is as close to the experience as possible. It it also to give our readers a chance to see how the event unfolded. Please find below some galleries for your enjoyment.

Photo gallery: Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Gum Soul

Photo gallery: White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

White Room (soundcheck)

Photo gallery: White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

White Room (performance)

Photo gallery: The Blinders

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla

The Blinders at Thekla – set list

We have been writing extensively about the Blinders on our blog Indieterria, so please have a look if you want to know more.

So the October/November, 22-date Columbia tour is now a history. Another page in the book is now turned and we are looking towards the future, remembering the amazing music, new friends we made and places we went to. It was a bit of a blur, we have to admit. First the preparations, album release, the visits to record stores, then the gigs and now we find ourselves back to square one!

The Blinders are watching you! Picture copyright by Modern Sky UK

What does that mean? First of all, the well deserved rest for the band, management and the technical crew who worked like house elves over the last few months. Then of course, it is the writing of the new material, recording session for the second album sometime next year and even more gigs! The Blinders’ booking team is working really hard to satisfy the demand to see them play live. The band already have multiple shows booked for December 2018 and the beginning of 2019. We will be putting them all here, in one separate blog as it is easier to keep an eye on everything that will be happening soon.

If you’d like to read some of the previous blogs about The Blinders, please use the links below.

Alongside the newly added tour dates, this blog will include everything else that our other posts have taken into account: interview, articles, reviews, press mentions, newsletters, videos and pictures etc. We will try (again) to prepare some sort of an encyclopedia containing all data, sources and information that should give you a clear picture of what is happening on the road. This post will be growing as new dates are added, as new materials are found – if we miss something, please kindly point us in the right direction and we will add the missing links or pictures. If you’d like to contribute something – that’s even better! We always love hearing from other fans and since it is impossible for us to be at every gig, we welcome any help in documenting the Blinders’ journeys. Each section is clearly marked so please check them as the time goes by – you will find new information being added!

Visualization videos:The Blinders are working closely with Sam Crowston and Nasty Men Creations to bring you the best visualizations for their tour. All videos will be added one under the other. We already have few available for your viewing pleasure!

Merch:The band has listened to their fans and a new merchandise selection has been added to their official store. Right now you can choose among seven different types of tees, bags, badges and many more items. The merch can be ordered through the band’s official website, but also will be available at the gigs. If you like anything, grab it!

International Reviews:“The Manchester based trio, The Blinders play each of their songs as it was their last. The intensity of their performance is enormous but it works surprisingly well creating a psychedelic garage rock genre. Punkrock meets shoegaze guitars, droning bass beat and grinding drumming, leads to an unusual combination. Live shows are something everyone has to see – the band gives everything they have to the audience: warpaint, sweat and bloodied instruments. This is pure frenzied performance influenced by Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and The Fall. The BBC has had them on their radar for a couple of years now and called them a ‘Must-See band'” – WDR.DE after ESNS performance at Vera Club in Groningen (translation from German)https://www1.wdr.de/…/bands/ueber-the-blinders-100.html

TOUR:Concerts, festival appearances and other gigs are slowly filling up the band’ schedule. 2019 seems like a very busy year as it will take them to mainland Europe and all over the UK again. To make it easy for you to keep an eye on all booked events, we decided to create a calendar! It is easy and very efficient. Of course, we will be updating the blog as the shows happen so each section you see below, will be extended. Each entry in the calendar contains full description for the event, address, links and other useful information. If the stage times or a place has not been fully confirmed yet, it is market as TBA (to be announced). The calendar will also be updated as more details are revealed.

Before the event, the band recorded a short video explaining why they support this noble cause:

Avalanche Xmas Party – now completed

Avalanche Xmas Party ft very special guests poster

Gig number 2 took place on 8th of December. For several reasons, it was one of the most unusual concerts that The Blinders played. First of all, it was organized by the headliner – The Avalanche Party and it was their personal, open to the public, Christmas Party. Secondly, the show was free entry, first come – first serve basis. Thirdly – it took place in the picturesque North Yorkshire sea village of Staithes that has a strong connection to the famous captain, James Cook. Avalanche Party and The Blinders were joined by Strange Bones and The Black Lagoons and the party started at 8:30 pm sharp. There were no reservations, tickets available only at the door and yet the place was packed tight. The venue, Captain Cook Inn, is very small and has about 80 people capacity and all of the tickets were sold out in just two days. What was happening you may ask? Well, according to reports, the show was absolutely stunning. The mosh pit was everywhere, shirts were removed quite early on and it was a blissfully sweaty affair, with singers being carried in the air by the crowd, gas masks were worn and the after party was a good old rock and roll history in the making. During the Blinder’s set, Johnny Dream took a day off and Thomas Haywood stepped in (the make up was gone!). Many fans are now calling for a full tour to be organized and we think this is a brilliant idea. Every venue would be sold out – this is not a marketing drill or “fake it till you make it” technique. This is a true fact. Each of those bands play a fantastic set, they also have their dedicated audiences, they play music that fits together and they never tourd the UK in this line up before. Since we posted information about this gig on our blog, at least 20 people contacted us asking if there will be future shows. Ladies and gents in the management for each of those killer acts – can we ask for at least several shows next year? Dear Santa, we have been very good this year!

Number three show in the Blinders’ December calendar was their annual pilgrimage to their place of origin, aka Doncaster. The band played their beloved Social Club on 19th of December in their home town and Calva Louise acted as their support. Tickets were available only in person from the venue and as you may correctly guessed, it was another sold out show for the band. The doors opened at 7:30, by 8:00, Calva Louise were on stage and The Blinders rocked the crowd at 9:00. This was a very special show with massive mosh pit (loads of girls in the front we are happy to report!) and two new songs. The first one, performed as a second during their set, was actually a brand new version of a song written by Thomas Haywood about 3 years ago and was titled “Wither”. You can listen to its very, very early version on Thomas’ personal Soundcloud account: https://soundcloud.com/thomas-haywood-141688445/wither
The second new song “Lunatic With A Gun” was played as the 10th song in the set. It was premiered for the first time nearly a month earlier at the charity gig in Manchester and confused a lot of people when it suddenly stopped. This time, the public was prepared so the band didn’t have to explained it was the end of the track! The band’s set was also significantly longer than usual: it contained 14 songs and one encore “Swine”. The show lasted over an hour and 10 minutes and the order of the songs was completely new – the fans loved it. Oh, and the war paint was back so Johnny Dream survived Thekla and the Last Battle of Bristol.

Fourth event booked for 22 of December was the IN THE FLESH! mini festival in Glasgow. It was a large show with two different venues inside the massive SWG3 Studios and Warehouse. The doors opened exactly at 3 pm and the first band to perform on Stage 1 was the The Vanities (they played between 4:00 and 4:30). They were followed by Walt Disco (5:00-5:30), then Rascalton (6:00-6:30) with Neon Waltz, headlining from 7:00 till 7:45. The Stage 2 was the main stage and their programme was longer and more varied. CRYSTAL started at 4:30 till 5:00 pm, followed by Voodoos, (5:30-6:00), LUCIA (6:30-7:00), then The Blinders took the stage for a full 45 minute set (8:00-8:45) and the evening was finished by an excellent performance from BABY STRANGE. Curfew for the show was 10:00 pm. Tickets were priced at £15 and you needed to be +14 to enter.

What can we say about the show? It was another Christmas party and it went very well. Less than 100 tickets remained at the doors and the venue was filled tightly. The band gave a full performance, the set list was almost identical to the one from Doncaster with the exception of “Wither” that was replaced by “Swine”. The Blinders had a fantastic time and so did the audience who praised the trio’s energetic performance and technical abilities.

Kendal Calling New Year’s Eve, Manchester – now completedIf you didn’t know where to go to celebrate the NYE, but you wanted to see the band, you had the chance to catch them twice in one night in their (adopted) hometown of Manchester. And it was not just any other regular night – it was the New Years’s Eve! The first opportunity to see The Blinders on stage was at Kendal Calling New Year’s Party. Andy Smith and his team organized a special show to celebrate not only the beginning of 2019, but also to thank all those who attended the festival in the summer.

Kendall Calling New Years’ Eve Extravaganza!

Victoria Warehouse is a large venue and several hundred people partied hard to the music of Everything Everything, Tom Greenan, Felix Hagan and The Family, and two large DJ sets from The Hacienda legend Dave Haslam and Howling Rhythm. Doors were opened at 6:30 pm, the show started exactly at 7 pm and finished around 2 am. This was one of the rare occasions to see Dave Haslam returning to the DJ booth and re-creating a true Hacienda Rave party. As you can imagine, this line up managed to attract quite a crowd. The Blinders played as a second act of the evening, right after the truly enjoyable set by Felix Hagan and The Family. Their set was 30 minute long between 20:00 and 20:30 pm. As usual, they started off with “Gotta Get Through” that merged into “Brace New World”. A strong and aggressive beginning allowed the public to jump and dance and it was good to see the Blinders on a full scale, stadium-like stage. “Where no man comes” and “ICT Blues” followed and the set was closed with “Brutus”.

Night People New Year’s Party, Manchester – now completedAfter finishing their duties at Kendal Calling, The Blinders made their way to Night People to play a second show of the evening. They have been the mysterious headliner advertised on the posters, probably the worst kept secret in the entire Kingdom of Mancunia as everyone knew who that headliner was. Just look at the posters below (by the way, the event has amassed 4 different promotional graphics, which is quite something) and count the question marks. Very clever, isn’t it? The New Year’s Party at Night People was in fact a small festival. 8 bands were booked to play, but sadly at the last minute, Naked Six had to cancel due to illness. The doors were opened at 7:30 and the first band to play was The Big Peach (20:45-21:15). The quintet describes themselves as “5 rock n roll outlaws making Manchester their own 1960’s wild west frontier – they sound quite interesting so please give them a spin. Carnival Club were next with their slot lasting 30 minutes (21:30-22:00). Nicknamed as “Patron Saints of Rock and Roll”, the quartet has made quite an impressions on the locals and will play a large tour in 2019. Things started getting really interesting when the third band appeared on stage. SECS were advertised as Manchester’s first super group and all we knew before the show was, it was formed by members of The Blinders, Calva Louise and Strange Bones. Once SECS started playing exactly at 22:20 (a bit fashionably late), the mystery of who exactly was in the band was revealed. Jess Eastwood of Calva Louise took the role of main vocalist and guitarist, Bobby Bentham of Strange Bones sang backing vocals and played lead guitar and Matty Neale of The Blinders filled his usual post as a drummer. A real surprise was to see The Blinders’ frontman, Thomas Haywood joining them on stage as a…bassist! SECS set was brilliant (but of course), energetic and the group had so much fun playing together. they played several songs including “Easy”, “I Know” and “Hang on”. We hope that they will be playing more often but this seems rather unlikely as this year will be very busy for their main bands. At 23:00 pm, The Blinders took to the stage. While playing with SECS, Thomas wore a white shirt, he was all smiles and seems relaxed. When he returned to the stage as Johnny Dream, his face was very focused, the warpaint back on. Yet during the gig, and when the sweat started washing the make up away, his smile returned, he greeted and saluted the crowd and exchanged short laughs with Charlie and Matty. It was good to see them enjoying playing for their friends and families – a much different call than when they are on tour in unfamiliar places. They played “Gotta Get Through”, “L’Etat C’est Moi”, “Hate Song”, “ICB Blues”, “Et Tu/BerlinWall/Brutus”, “Brave New World”, “Rat in a Cage”, “Ramona Flowers”, “Wither” and “Swine”, although not in that particular order 🙂 The set finished several minutes before midnight and it was the time for John Hall to do the honours and count down to announce the new year. Saytr Play, one of our discoveries in 2018, played next, the first band to rock 2019. They started with “Don’t Go East”, with “VCR”, “To Be The One”, “L.I.F.E.”, “Mother’s Love”, “Fragile”, “Band Average” and “Everyday Since” forming the rest of their set. After 1:00 am, alternative duo (and first cousins) Sly Antics appeared to entertain the public with quite an impressive concert consisting of “Motion”, “Bin Juice”, “B-Side”, “Roads”, “Choose Your Words”, “Fresh Bites”, “Reality”, “Lights Go Down” and “Sunday Fear”. Please take a closer look at them if you have a chance, those guys are really something else! Replacing Naked Six, Octoptus finished the live music for the evening with their set nearly at 02:45am. The party went on til 6 am with several DJ sets, but that’s a different story!

First TV performance and interview at Soccer AM (Sky1), London – now completeThe new year started like a Hitchcock’s thriller – first the earthquake and then the tension slowly started rising up. On January 2nd, The Blinders announced that they would appear on national television for the first time in their career! They have been invited for an interview and performance to the popular Saturday morning program, Soccer AM on 5th of January! Just moments after the news appeared on the official social media channels, the Columbia I-net went into some soft of an overdrive. Fans bombarded the band with questions, exclamation marks and congratulations.

SOCCER AM

this Saturday we go live on @SoccerAM for the first time ever on the small screen, what a delight.

Just look at the comments posted online – the Blinders have the most loyal fans

The Blinders spent entire day on Friday recording the program alongside Liam Ridgewell (defender and the captain of Major League Soccer club Portland Timbers) and Ceallach Spellman (actor and TV presenter). They performed “Brave New World” live in the studio, answered a lot of questions (favourite football teams, how it felt to play two gigs on New Years Eve, what is Columbia and who is Johnny Dream) and even had a chance to shoot penalties. Thomas and Charlie sadly missed, but Matty showed the world that he is not only a skilled drummer, but can kick the ball like a pro. He also sent kisses left and right after scoring a goal. The show was broadcast on Sky1 on Saturday exactly at 10:00 am and finished at 11:30.

The performance can be seen on Soccer AM Facebook page:

Penalties:

The interview:

After the videos and performances were uploaded online, the band basically went viral. The video to Brave New World has been viewed nearly 30.000 times in less than 12 hours. We have been monitoring the rising statistics for the entire day and Malicia did a nice post to sum it all up. But of course the numbers keep on growing and will continue to grow so please hang tight, it is going to be a nice ride! So far we managed to count: 30.000 views for their performance on Facebook, 23.000 on Twitter, Matty’s goal scored nearly 30.000 views as well. Nearly 1000 likes, over 700 comments across the band’s social channels…Amazing!

ESNS Eurosonic Noorderslag, The Netherlands – now completeEurosonic Noorderslag (abbreviated ESNS) is one of the biggest music conference in Europe. It is an equivalent of South by South West and each year thousands of people travel to the city of Groningen to participate. There are hundreds of concerts in 47 different venues, meetings, talks and panels regarding every part of the music industry – from mech and touring to PR, legal advice and international recording deals. Every genre (from metal to folk music) was represented and everybody could find something that would make them tap their feet or dance. ESNS 2019 took place on 16th-19th January and it was The Blinders’ first international festival! More than 300 acts were confirmed, from every European county. The Blinders joined Boy Azooga, Fontaines D.C., Bülow, Pip Blom and many other established acts. Plus, the festival added them to their official Spotify list! You could say that the first trip to mainland Europe was a success even before the band landed in the Netherlands!

ESNS logo

When The Blinders were booked to play at ESNS in the summer last year, the news of their appearance at the festival caused a huge anticipation among media and gig goers. The demand to see them live grew even further after the word of their sold out Columbia tour traveled abroad. The concert at VERA Club (one of the biggest venues in Groningen) took place on Thursday 17th of January between 23:45 and 00:30 CET. The band performed alongside Any Other (Italy), Fontaines D.C. (Ireland) and Scúru Fitchádu (Portugal) to fully packed venue. Tickets to the show were sold out weeks in advance and at least 100 people were left standing outside the club and sadly could not get in! We were lucky that riots have not started in the streets! The trio played their entire 50 minute set that English fans already know from their autumn tour, but the European fans were mesmerized! They started with “Gotta Get Through”, followed with “Brave New World”, “Free the Slaves”, “ICB Blues”, “Where No Man Comes” and of course they closed their set with the murderous marathon of “Brutus”, “Et Tu” and “Berlin Wall”. The audience gave them a long ovation after they left the stage. It will be a night the band and the public will never forget! We have to mention one thing – for the first time we had a chance to see the entire band playing in the matching clothing. Thomas Haywood took on his usual persona of Johnny Dream (black trousers and black bohemian loose shirt plus warpaint), but Charlie and Matty also wore only black. Charlie is usually dressed in dark suit with white shirt underneath (resembling Nick Cave) but this time wore only black silky shirt and dark trousers. Matty wore a dark short sleeve shirt and elegant dark trousers as well, instead of his preferred attire composed of a grey tee and a pair of jeans. One journalist jokingly described them as Men in Black!

Playing internationally is great but the domestic market is important as well and The Blinders will be super busy next year. Their UK schedule is starting to fill out quickly so keep your eyes open as this section will be growing longer and longer with each week. At some point, it will probably evolve into a new blog post but for now, all the tour announcements will be kept here.

The first show announced for 2019 is at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge and it will take place on 31st of January 2019. The show is now fully sold out – it took only 4 days for all tickets to fly out of the door. It is part of the Independent Venue Week 2019 and The Blinders will be supported by punk/garage/rock 3 piece called The C33’s.

Independent Venue Week – Trade Club poster

Trades club poster

If you were not successful in securing tickets for January, don’t despair, there is a rumor on the world wide web that maybe a second date will be added? If you’d like to keep a finger on the pulse, please check the venue’s official Facebook for more information: https://www.facebook.com/pg/tradesclub/events/

The last link not only let you to buy the tickets (which are only €35 by the way) but also gives this sweet introduction to the band:

GRAUZONE Festival introduction for The Blinders

Translation: “English band, The Blinders, hailed by their domestic press and the BBC as ‘savers of the rock ‘n roll’ (together with Idles and Shame) comes exclusively to The Hague with their frenzied, obsessive live show, a madness-bordering experience that you must see. The band already plays in England to sold-out halls and big festivals and their debut album Columbia has been called ‘album of the year’ by many”. Now this is what we call a love letter to the band!

If everything goes well, March will be HUGE for the trio! For 10 days each year (it will be between 7th -17th of March in 2019), Austin in Texas turns into the biggest musical conference in the world. It is of course South By South West (SXSW) and each year about 200 best bands in the world are invited to play. And The Blinders were invited! Going to America with equipment, technical crew and management is a great expense that not every lucky band can afford. On top of plane tickets and insurance, there are also visa costs that can be frankly egregious. But let’s keep our fingers crossed! Going to Europe one month and then going to USA will be a fantastic adventure and we are beyond proud of the band! Schedule is not available at this stage, but we will be updating you as more details are released. With the Blinders going over the Pond so soon, Trump can forget about building any walls!

May is traditionally the beginning of the festival season. On May 5th in Newcastle, The Blinders will attend the Hit the North Festival. 120 bands will play on 12 stages across the town and more than 40.000 people are expected to attend. The Doncaster trio will be joining Jake Bugg, Tom Grennan and the “Wonder” and “Psycho” songstress, Lauren Aquilina on stage to rock you and me (and even the Salmons of Alaska).

April and May are simply massive for the Blinders! This is when their proper tour starts and they will be travelling to Germany to play in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin! They also have a handful of domestic gigs announced as well.

April/May UK and European tour

The tickets are already available for all the shows and we even received a nice newsletter telling us about it! The prices range from £12.00 (Birmingham) to £15 (Glasgow and London). The European tickets are priced at €17.50 (Cologne) and €20.00 (Berlin).

See Tickets Newsletter

The dates are so far:
01. Birmingham – 26th of April
02. Manchester – 27th of April
03. Glasgow – 28th of April
04. London – 30th of April
05. Cologne – 7th of May
06. Hamburg – 8th of May
07. Berlin – 9th of May

Please be aware that more European shows will be added to this section!

Saturday, 25th of May, will see The Blinders performing in Warrington at the Neighbourhood Festival! The band will be joining George Ezra, Primal Scream (headliners), You Me at Six, Nothing But Thieves, Tom Grennan, The Hunnas, Embrace, Pale Waves and Gaz Coombes (of Supergrass) among others. We don’t have the stage details or time schedule yet but once it is announced, you will find it all here.

Day later, on Sunday the 26th of May, the Blinders will also participate in Bearded Theory’s Spring Gathering Festival in Catton Hall in Derbyshire. The line up this year looks amazing. Suede are the headliners, Reef, Justin Sullivan of New Model Army and The Wildhearts are all making glorious come backs. The trio will be in great company so again, grab tickets while they are still here – the festival is rather small and it sold out last year. We are sure the history will repeat itself in 2019.

Another show announced was the mini festival with the Blossoms, The Coral, Cabbage and the Fuzzy Sun. Bad news, it is sold out again, this time in a record time of 30 minutes. Those lucky ones who were able to buy the tickets, will enjoy the great show at Stockport County FC stadium in Edgeley Park on Saturday 22nd of June 2019. You can see more info on Blossoms page: https://www.facebook.com/blossomsband/

Stockport County Football Club grounds poster

A week later, on 30th of June, the band will travel to Exeter to visit the beautiful Powderham Castle to participate in Sunday Sessions Exeter. The Blinders will join a fantastic line up including Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Charlatans, Reverend And The Makers and The Loft Club among many other acts. Stage times are not available yet, but we will update this entry as they are announced.

The time has come! The great tour of Columbia is almost upon us and for the next month, we will be following The Blinders as they deliver their sermon of raw emotions, rock and roll fire and spiritual awakening to a venue near you! Vanadian Avenue will attend two concerts on our own turf. We will bring you the exclusive coverage from Birmingham and Bristol so be prepared for live streams, videos and pictures from the front row.

This entry will be dedicated to the tour exclusively. We will try to collect all materials that will be published on various social media to keep everything tour-related in one place.

For the next month and a half, The Blinders will be travelling all over the UK bringing their music to their fans and shaking the old walls of Columbia until they crumble into a pile of dust. The tour starts in Manchester on 15th of October and will end up with the Last Battle of Bristol on 11th of November. The 22-date tour is the second this year and already several shows are sold out or running very low on tickets. The Blinders will be supported by White Room and Calva Louise on alternative dates so please consider coming to the shows twice as both support acts are incredibly good and it is worth seeing them both live.

And at the beginning of week two – 7 shows sold out and 7 running very low on tickets (less than 20 tickets left)

Third leg of the tour and 9 sold out gigs. Out of 22 shows, that’s nearly 40% of the tour being sold out! Nice!

Merch:It is not possible to go on a national tour without a whole range of t-shirts and other memorabilia. This time, the band prepared coasters, stickers, three different shirts to choose from, bags, lighters, posters and many other items. Some of them you can see on the pictures below:

Stage:There is a new scenography for the tour and it is in the darkest shades of crimson! The colour of blood is visible on posters and stickers, the Columbia banners that are proudly displayed on both sides of the stage and the lighting. You can see the picture of Charlie standing on the stage just before the last rehearsal. There is apparently a shocking beginning to the set too but you will not hear any spoilers form us!

Home-coming gig! It was mad and tightly packed. Half of the local scene was there so claustrophobic conditions, mosh pit of epic proportions, blood, sweet and tears were to be expected. Manchester Academy 2 has capacity of 800 people and all tickets have been sold out which signals a new chapter in the band’s development. From small and medium sized clubs, they are quickly moving towards large arenas. After the concert, everybody were invited to the official after party where the band once again played the DJ’s and tormented their guests with their favourite songs from Nick Cave, Bob Dylan and The Doors to The Arctic Monkeys to Abba (Oh, does your mother know you are out?)

The Blinders’ guitar tech, Max Grindle, (@maxgrindle) captures the moment when the champagnes are being opened to celebrate a huge success!

After triumphant beginning in Manchester, The Blinders played Newcastle on Tuesday night. The doors opened at 8:00, the show started 30 minutes later with local 4 piece band called Baltic opening. Calva Louise played their 45 minutes set at 9:15 and then The Blinders took to the stage at 10:00 PM. This venue has capacity of 275 people and was nearly sold out (only 30 ticket short from being full)!

The New Adelphi Club may be small but it is very popular in Kingston. The tickets sold out hours before the gig and many were left desperate when this screen appeared around 14:00 in the afternoon:

Tickets are now sold out!

To those who will be seeing the band in the coming days, please buy the tickets now as they are running very, very low on entire tour and many venues will sell out. Birmingham is down to 6 tickets, Bristol we are told is down to about 30, the same in other venues. Please don’t leave it to the last minute as there is no reprint of tickets. The venues cannot accept any more people beyond their capacity limits! Thank you! Now, having the announcements behind us, we are pleased to report that Calva Louise and Faux Pas played excellent shows and the

The Blinders will play twice in Cardiff during the SWN festival. On Friday, they headlined the main stage in popular bar, O’Neills and their set took place between 11:30 pm – 0:30am. Early bird tickets are now sold out and the entire festival is down to 200 tickets so it no doubt the two shows will again be sold out/nearly sold out events for the Doncaster trio.
You can see the schedule as a pdf or jpg below:

As you can see from the song list, two fan favourites are making a big come back: “Swine” and “Ramona Flowers”. They might not be on the record but their place among the best songs are confirmed. This tour is a massive punch in the guts and if you haven’t been punched yet, please stand in line!!

05. SWN Festival Cardiff – 20 of October (now completed)

Saturday is always one of the busiest days at SWN festivals. The schedules are packed absolutely mad and Cardiff was be bursting at the seams in the evening. The Blinders played a 45 minute set at the Old Market Tavern starting exactly at 6:00pm. The crowd was wild, welcoming and ready to rock. What can we say, another day in the office, isn’t it? 🙂

Poster advertising Huw Stephens show with the Blinders hanging outside the venue

The band had a day off on Sunday 21st of October to recharge their batteries and came back to the stage on Monday at the Sugarmill. This is a popular venue and The Blinders played there on their last tour in the winter. To thank their fans for being so welcoming (by the mid-day on 22nd of October, the band learnt that 7 shows have fully sold out and 7 additional ones were down to last tickets!), the lads along with their management offered 4 free tickets to the show. You can imagine that they were snapped in a matter of minutes. As usually, the gig went perfectly well with Calva Louise and local act, Saint Ivy on the supporting bills.

The first gig on Vanadian Avenue’s turf! Birmingham was selling well from the start and it is our greatest pleasure to announce that we have a second sold out show for the band in the Second City, following the gig at Sunflower Lounge on 16th of February 2018. We will be doing an extensive coverage and a concert review so please be on a stand by!

On the 8th day of tour, The Blinders visited Nottingham to play at nearly sold out gig at the popular club, Bodega. The doors opened at 7:00 pm and the show finished exactly at 10:00 pm, very early for a mid week night! We cannot complain as the concert was an excellent one, with massive mosh pit and a fantastic crowd reaction. Young 4 piece Those Howling Sounds opened the show,followed by a well received performance by Calva Louise. We don’t have to tell you that The Blinders of course stole the show, but nobody would bet on something that obvious!

Starting in Birmingham, the tour is becoming more and more relentless. There are shows now every day without any breaks but the band truly enjoy being on the road and playing a gig in new town each day. More and more gigs are also selling out, so please don’t wait until last minute. On 25 of October, The Blinders returned to the Venue in Derby for the second time this year, after their sold out debut in February. Another venue and another, nearly sold out show. It was very intense, or sources confirmed that Matty broke one of his drumsticks and he threw it into the crowd!

We are almost in the middle of the tour! On 26 of October, The Blinders played in Sheffield in a fantastic place called The Plug on Matilda Street. The doors opened at 7:30pm, the curfew was at 11:00pm and Calva Louise and The Varletts were supporting. It was considered one of the best shows on the tour so thank you to those who came and made it such a fantastic experience for everybody involved. We love you all!

After a day of rest (for Halloween parties), The Blinders are now back on the road. On 28th of October, the band arrived to play at the lovely Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and it was again a sold out affair. Doors opened at 7:30, Household Dogs were the first support for the night, followed by the wonderful Calva Louise just before the Doncaster trio. As expected, it was a beautiful gig, with massive mosh pit, great response from the crowd and a fantastic feedback.

Liverpool was the 12th gig on this tour and right now we are exactly in the middle! It is true that the time flies when we are all having the time of our lives. The Liverpool concert introduced some massive changes in the line up: Calva Louise finished their leg of the tour and the new support slot was now filled by White Room. Liverpool concert was also be supported by the mega popular local quartet, The K’s. It was the 6th sold out show for the trio and as you can imagine, it was a blast! The crowd was mad, the band again gave it all and everybody loved each second!

The lucky, 13th gig took place in Aberdeen! A long, long way from the Kingdom of Mancunia (about 6 h by car), but only an hour by plane. The band was travelling by air to reach the next destination and luckily it was a sunny (yet very cold day) for such a long journey. As with other gigs before, the show was spectacular and the club was tightly packed. The Blinders were joined by the White Room and local 5 piece, Swym.

The concerts are going so well that Sam Crowston (The Blinders’ official photographer and visualizer) posted this on Twitter. The merch has nearly sold out and again. That is a very, very good news indeed! Time to order so more.

After a day of rest for the Halloween festivities, the show number 14 is a sweet deal for The Blinders. Preston was one of the first shows to sell out, even before Manchester, Birmingham or London. The show will take place in a club called The Ferret. The doors opened sharp at 7:00 pm and the party lasted until way past the curfew at 11:00. White Room and Manchester trio Sweet Deals on Surgery were supporting to universal acclaim. Of course, The Blinders again stole the show, but it happens every night so nobody is surprised.

Another evening nearly sold out and a fantastic, active crowd singing every word! Thank you so much York! You were fantastic and this show will be remembered for a long period of time. The doors were opened at 7:00, Faux Pas played first, followed by White Room and The Blinders (or Los Blinders as they are recently known) came to the stage at 10:00. Their 50 minute show left people drenched in sweat and wanting more. And more shall come as the tour continues!

2Q Festival – Presented by the crew of Badlands Festival, the Liquor stage will present:Ducking Punches, The Blinders, OCTOBER DRIFT, Queen Zee, Madonnatron, No Hot Ashes, The Ultraviolet, tiger warsaw

2Q Festival is a one celebration festival happening in Lincoln. 80 bands, 9 venues, a whole city dedicated to rock and roll – what else can you ask for? The festival is an award winning event and is known for it’s fantastic and safe atmosphere. The Blinders played their slot at The Liquor exactly at 19:45 pm as a first support before the headliner, Ducking Punches.

Stage times

Facebook advert

How can we describe their show? Well it was MADNESS! People shouting, jumping, Thomas being lifted in the air and walking among the crowd, Charlie playing like a demon and Matty just driving everyone and everything into the ground with his drumming. Only handful of shows left so please come and see them if you haven’t had the chance yet!

The band arrived in Oxford to play at the legendary Bullingdon Club on the 5th of November (remember, remember…). The doors were opened exactly at 7:00 pm but many people were waiting outside of the club for at least several hours despite the cold weather. They were singing “Rat In a Cage” and sharing teas – this is what real dedication and true fandom looks like! Thank you to those who provided the free cuppa to the half frozen fans! Due to a mistake on the ticket vendor site, the show was marked as 14+ when in fact it was 16+ so fans had to show their ID’s to the gentleman at the door. Local Oxford heroes, Brixtons were the first opener, with White Light playing at 9:00 and The Blinders at 10:00. The show finished around 11:00. What can we say? The show was nearly sold out – only 11 tickets were left at the doors so that says a lot about the reception this tour is getting. The crowd was mad, the band finished drenched in sweat and Thomas’ make up was washed clean by fourth song. Another fantastic night!

18th day of the tour had the band arriving in lovely Cambridge! Lets hope the lads had some time off to do a bit of sightseeing as Cambridge is simply breathtaking. As for the show: opening times were pretty standard. Doors opened at 7:00 pm, first support, Ugly performed at 7:30 (please give them a spin as they are truly excellent band!), The White Room went on stage at 9:00 and The Blinders again exactly at 10:00. The show was finished by 11:30 pm. Again, the requirement for all attendees who were under 18 was to have an accompanying adult with them and an ID. According to the reports, the crowd was mad as a hatter, the mosh pit was truly impressive (though not as big as in Birmingham) and everyone had time of their lives.

London gig advertised in Time Out Magazine, London. Picture by by Artbeat Promo

London!! The Columbia tour has finally reached the capitol! For one night only, at the amazing venue The Garage, we had a chance to see The Moses, Calva Louise and The Blinders on one bill. It was a dream come true and the show will remain in our memories for a very long period of time. The doors were opened at 7:00, Moses played at 7:45, Calva Louise at 8:30 and Los Blinders at 9:20. The mosh pit was extremely tight and several people have to be removed from the venue but the security guys did a splendid job. Everyone was safe and sound, had a great time and nothing could spoil the fun! Thank you once again guys! You are truly amazing!

On the 20th day of their journey, The Blinders went down to Southampton. It was one of the earliest sold out dates and the band is always welcomed in the city. The place, The Heartbreakers Bar and Venue has a fantastic reputation and is known to deliver great events. Moses and The White Room went along for the wild ride and we have to say that the night went smoothly and everybody were perfectly happy. As usual, doors were opened at 7pm, Moses played at 7:45pm, The While Room at 8:20 and The Blinders went on at 9:30. The curfew was 10:30 pm. There was a secret after party at one of the city’s night clubs and fans had a chance to take pictures and speak to the band. All in all, the night was greatly intense and long will be remembered (there was just one causality, the amp backed up and exit the stage left, but it didn’t spoil anything!)

Brighton, the next step after Southampton (aka day 21) also sold out several months in advance and is considered one of the best shows on the tour. The band was incredibly focused and energetic. Each song was played with additional strength, dedication and with an extra layer of what can only be described as a “rock and roll” spirit. In plain words – there was more sweat, more theatrics and more swagger. The public loved every second of it and so did the band.

As usual, the gig was opened by a local support, this time by Brighton quartet, Swoon with the amazing vocalist Alice Guala at the helm. The White Room were next at 8:30 and then at 9:20, the Blinders took to the stage. The gig ended at 10:30 with all three bands meeting fans and signing records and posters. After everything was said, done, sang and signed, the entourage went off to a local night club for the after party that lasted, if you believe the report, till the dawn.

Bristol gig (aka The Last Battle of Bristol) took place on the 11th of November and it was the last show on this tour. What was happening, you may ask? The band has long promised to finally kill off Johnny Dream persona, but the show was rather peaceful and nobody was hurt. There was no murder on the (dance) floor and no blood streaming down the walls. The doors were opened at 7:00 and the fans were treated to a cloak room, two upstairs bars, one main bar at the ground floor and a viewing gallery (aka the upper deck) on a real boat! Thekla is quite famous for its unique interior and it was a pleasure to see it with our own eyes. Gum Sole, a young quartet from Bath were quite impressive and we took some videos and pictures so please be on the look out for a review! The White Room are not our cup of tea, but we have to say their music is of excellent quality and the lead singer knows how to charm a crowd! Sadly, we had to leave the venue quite early and we only saw the Blinders for a couple of songs but as usual they were amazing. We missed a very cool thing though – Thomas (or rather Johnny Dream) came into the audience and sat on the floor surrounded by the crowd during one of the songs and everyone commented, it was a truly magical moment. Oh well! You cannot see everything but there is always another gig to attend!

The answer will be a simple one – it was a huge success for the young Doncaster trio! 22 concerts, 10 sold out shows, 7 nearly sold out gigs (leaving 10 or 20 tickets at the doors), 4 concerts with more than half venue capacity filled out. Please note that we are only relying on press reports, venue press releases, our own calculations and the reviews available online and those of our friends who came to the gigs. Maybe the official results will be even better. In any case, Columbia tour has to be called a success. The attendance was way above the average, we have found more than 50 videos on Youtube, hundreds of pictures, 20 articles, 21 reviews and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The merch stand was almost empty in Thekla and the gentleman behind the counter was apologizing that the band ran out of t-shirts again! Apparently the shop had to be restocked twice before. This is a very good news and thank you so much for your amazing support for the band! Buying tickets and merch provides necessary income to keep the bands going. We are sure all sales will be dutifully counted and the stock will be much bigger on the next tour, to meet the demand.

Was there something missing?

There is always room for improvement and we have collected the best fans suggestions that were posted all over the Internet:

– A gig in Norwich! Many fans called for additional gig to be added to the tour. The last time The Blinders played Norwich was on 17th of October 2017 along with Queen Zee and Cabbage (Norwich Arts Centre). Maybe 2019 will see the band returning to the capitol of East Anglia.
– More variety at the merch stand – fans asked for more t-shirt designs to choose from (there were only three available) and for female versions of the tees to be added as the unisex ones (even in S and M sizes) were simply too big. Also, please bring back the lighters!– Festival appearances – some festival appearances were added at the last minute or were not advertised on the social media in advance, not allowing fans to purchase the tickets.
– New material/song order – in short, can at least one new song be added to the set? If it is not possible, please play “Murder at the Ballet” and “You Are So Cold” from the first EP to add some variety. Those who attended multiple concerts wished that the song order was changed a bit as it was identical for the majority of the tour. Some fans also called out for the mysterious “Acid Bath” to be finally added to the set!
– More security and safe spaces for female attendees – this one is tricky as the band has absolutely no control over the behavior of the concert goers. When Thomas saw a rowdy fan trying to start a fight at the London gig, he stopped the concert and made sure the gentleman was escorted out by the security. The band also posted an appeal on their social media asking fans to take care of one another afterwards. Fans suggested teaming up with Safe Gigs for Women (https://sgfw.org.uk) a non profit organization trying to provide women with spaces where they could enjoy concerts without being harassed or being endangered. The charity also caters to the needs of the vulnerable people of both sexes, people with disabilities (including wheel chair users) and underage or young teens. There are other organizations doing similar work as well. It is something that can be taken into consideration.

Please remember that after all, we are responsible for the safety at gigs so if you see something worrying, suspicious or wrong, please let the stewards or security know. Thank you!

So what’s next?The band is now resting and working on new material. There are many gigs already booked for the rest of 2018 and for the 2019 and we will follow them in a separate blog entry as this one is very, very long already!

Please stay with us and enjoy the music, memories and the extensive library of links, pictures and videos!